July 14th, 2001

“Come on! When is this line going to end!” exclaimed Justin. Justin and Sam, two friends were waiting in line for a ride called the Scissors at the St. Henry’s fair. They were extremely excited.

“I know! We might as well just go on to a different ride,” suggested Sam.

“No way! We waited almost twenty minutes to get on and it looks like the best one at this fair.” The boys just decided to stay in line after that, waiting for about another fifteen minutes.

“Finally!” Justin and Sam exclaimed. Once they reached the front of the line, the ride engineer explained how to fasten the belts to the ride and to keep all hands and legs inside at all times.

The ride was completely fastened and ready to go as the ride engineer went around checking all the carts of the ride. Finally, the man started the ride and off it went. The ride was really exciting to the boys and they seemed to be enjoying it immensely, until something on the ride seemed to “pop”. Sam figured that it was nothing while Justin became really scared that something bad was going to happen.

Suddenly, piece by piece, the cheap carnival ride broke down, making the attached carts spin wildly and throwing Sam and Justin’s into mid air. There was a nearby lake right beside the location of the St. Henry’s fair. It appeared that was where the cart was headed towards.

While they were in the air for about four or five whole seconds, Justin screamed for help while Sam tried to unbuckle the belts. Justin was horrified by the way the cart was going down. His side was down towards the lake, as he thought that his side was going to go in first.

Finally, the cart was underwater. Sam and Justin tried as hard as they possibly could to undo the tangled belt that way it wouldn’t be wrapped around their legs and therefore they could escape immediately. Sam felt as if he was crushing Justin underwater and he eventually made his way by squirming out of the cart. Leaving Justin behind seemed like a bad idea; however Sam needed to get some fresh air in order to actually save his own life. He rushed his way to the tippy top of the water, took a long deep breath, and plunged back down to the bottom where Justin was lying, breathless.

Sam had the strength to pull Justin to the top of the water and onto a small plank of wood close by the land. The lake wasn’t too deep, but Justin was a heavy boy. The piece of wood barely held him, however it gave Sam just enough time to escape the water and take another breath to pull him on the land. He quickly tried to push the water out of Justin’s lungs by pressing firmly on his chest and up past the ribcage. After a few attempts of that and it not working, Sam gathered him into his arms and started running as fast as possible back to the carnival.

Immediately, Sam saw a small phone booth on the sidewalk near the carnival and gently sat Justin on the ground. Dialing the numbers, he at last received contact with the police.

“9-1-1 Emergency. How may I help you?” a young lady about the age of twenty five answered.

“Hello, my fr-friend needs help!” Sam exclaimed panting and trying to catch his breath from running so long. “He may have drowned in a lake right beside the St. Henry’s carnival that me and him were at. The ride that we were on nearly collapsed and we like flew into the lake where he just about drowned until I went back down to save him.”

“Alright, we will get help there immediately. Where is your location, dear?”

“I’m at the St. Henry’s fair. It’s on the street thirty one forty two Castle Drive. Please hurry!”
“Alright, be calm, I have help on the way. Just stay put and do your best to get your friend breathing again.” The dial tone came up and Sam quickly grasped Justin’s neck and performed mouth to mouth. It wasn’t working and he couldn’t hear even the slightest sound of breathing.

“Come on Justin. BREATH!”
Minutes later, cops and an ambulance showed up. Paramedics jumped out of the vehicle grabbing Justin from the ground. They carefully lifted him onto the stretcher a previous paramedic pried out of the ambulance. They pulled out breathing tubes and a few shots.

When everyone from the carnival saw what happened to the ride, they rushed over to the scene. They realized that cart from the ride was the only one that shot into the air. People were panicking. Some were even leaving the carnival while they could.

The polices’ job was to investigate what happened and get full detail from witnesses. They also were entitled to close down the carnival and put caution tape up for future enterers. Later, when the police were investigating the ride and what happened, they found something; a young boy about seven was lying underneath a broken cart.

“Oh my goodness! Jeremiah! Come here and help me recover this boy from under the ride!” a police yelled to another.

“What happened to this one?” the other officer asked.

“Looks like when the ride broke, this kid fell out of the cart and it fell on top of him.” In the mean time, while everyone was investigating and helping, Justin’s parents arrived.

“Oh my goodness! What happened to my baby?” Justin’s mom yelled as she ran toward the stretcher Justin lay upon.
“It’s alright ma’am, we have this under control. Hopefully, your son’s going to be okay,” said a paramedic calmly. “He may have a slight concussion. We won’t know for sure until we go back to the hospital and do some tests.”

“I am coming with the ambulance though!” she said as she kissed Justin on his forehead.

“Alright we will be departing to the hospital shortly.” As the police were finishing their last observations, the paramedics gathered the stretcher into the ambulance with a couple paramedics and Justin’s mom. Justin’s dad followed in the car behind along with Sam inside.